Smurfit Kappa has completed its exit from the Russian market.

The Irish packaging giant, which generated revenues of €12.8bn last year, confirmed on Monday that all operations in Russia have now been sold to local management following the approval of authorities in the country.

The sale of the group’s Russian operations comes almost a year after Smurfit Kappa first announced its plans to exit the market following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The global group owned a bag-in-box facility, as well as two corrugated plants in St Petersburg.

Smurfit Kappa also owned a corrugated plant in Moscow, which it acquired in 2017.

At the time, it described Russia as “an attractive growth market for us with exciting potential”.

This acquisition made the Irish company the biggest international corrugated packaging producer in Russia.

Smurfit Kappa also reported a €128m impairment charge in its 2022 financial results in relation to its operations in Russia following its decision to exit the market.

It added the Russian market represented less than 2pc of any of the group’s key performance indicators.

“The group announced its intention to exit the Russian market in an orderly manner on 1 April, 2022, and subsequently entered into an agreement to sell its Russian operations to local management,” the company said it in a statement on Monday.

"Following the approval of the Russian authorities and the completion of all necessary administrative processes, the group’s operations in Russia have now been sold.”

Smurfit Kappa reported earnings of €2.3bn last year, marking an increase of 38pc from 2021.

A FTSE-100 company, it is one of the world’s largest packaging groups.

Smurfit Kappa employs more than 47,000 people across 350 production sites in 35 countries.

The company is located in 22 countries in Europe, and in 13 across the Americas.